Collection
by microlm
Summary: Ten drabbles on various characters. For the ipod shuffle challenge.


The challenge: Pick a fandom, take your ipod and put it on shuffle. For the duration of each song, write a drabble. Repeat that 10 times.

A/N: So, I saw a few others do this challenge and wanted to try it. I decided that I need _way_ more time than a song allows to plot out a story and write it. And I have no idea why so many Imogen Heap songs came up (along with Tokyo Incidents). Seeing that I don't understand many of these songs (and some are lyric-less), most of these are just written based on the feelings I got from the song. Yeah. No particular pairing, just random characters.

Disclaimer: All characters belong to Yusei Matsui.

* * *

Rakujitsu (Sunset) – Tokyo Incidents

It had been a decidedly lovely day. The summer was perfect this year due to the nice breeze which kept it from being stifling. The cicadas had burst into a song which her husband had always complained about, but her daughter seemed to enjoy it well enough since she was getting drowsier and drowsier as the insects continued. She smiled.

She had had the doctors open the windows, although they told her that the outside air was poor for her. She disagreed. How could fresh air be bad for anyone? She had also requested to be allowed to see her daughter. Again, the doctors disagreed, saying that she was too frail, that it'd be too much strain. Honestly, her daughter wasn't fussy, how could she be a strain on her?

Her daughter had definitely gotten her father's brains (and her father's namesake). She had done well. There was no need to worry. The sun was setting, and day ended for her, but her daughter would have a good tomorrow, she was sure of that.

* * *

The Fire – Imogen Heap

Tetsu remembered his uncle vividly. Those memories were always accompanied by the crackle of fire, the low creaks as houses gave out, and the sharp sizzles that came with the 'fireflies'.

They were real fireflies. Not insects that lit themselves up by chemicals, but actually living pieces of ember which flew through the air.

He had told his uncle he hated fire for hurting people, but he knew that it was partially a lie. The fireflies were too lovely to be hated completely.

* * *

Superstar – Tokyo Incidents

Aya was left alone as a child, her parents being too occupied with work to pay much attention to her. She didn't mind it much.

Aya was left alone as a child, her classmates found her too creepy and her ever-present smile even in the face of tragedy to be terrifying. She didn't mind it much.

Being left alone allowed her to close herself off from the world. That wonderful world of cool darkness was a black canvas waiting for her to paint her music upon it. She built woods of words, rivers of lyrics, and wind from notes. That was her playground. It never grew boring for there was always more to be added, more to be explored.

_You should sing to others_, a girl had told her once.

So she did.

The glaring lights of the stage of the stage were so different from her dark world. Yet, she didn't mind it. It was fun, she decided, to reach others with her songs and see the effects they had on them. This was her playground now, and she could do whatever she wanted to.

* * *

My Secret Friend – IAMX (feat. Imogen Heap)

She wondered why she never told anyone about Neuro's true nature sometimes. She told herself that it was because she feared the physical repercussions, but, that was not the entire truth.

His presence, while being constantly terrifying was at the very least constant. When her father had died, all anyone had said was, "_Don't worry, we'll take care of it_." She was kept out. Shut out in a storm of chaos and left alone to deal with the strange feeling she felt emerging ever since her father had died.

Yako knew what it was after she met Neuro. He shoved her in forcibly and had given her a sort of power. She didn't have to feel useless, she could find the culprit.

And so, she was no longer shut out of anything. To open up others and see within and understand and prevent, that was what she wanted to do, because that way, no one else would have to feel useless either.

* * *

Mirrorball – Tokyo Incidents

"Who're you?" X asked the newcomer testily. He was bent over a circle filled with clouded-glass marbles.

"I should be asking you," the dark-haired girl said, shrugging her shoulders. "Hey, want to play with me?"

"You better have your own marbles."

"Oh, I do," the girl said, holding out her handful of solid black marbles. She bent down next to the circle. "So, who're you?"

"Me? I'm everyone and no one," X replied, shooting a marble out at the girl's black ones.

"That's sounds boring, I'm just me."

"Must be nice…"

"It is." A black marble shot X's out of the circle. "That'll be mine then. I'm sure an acquaintance can help identify you, you got any of those?"

"Of course I do! I got Ai!" X shot another marble.

"Ai, who's that?"

"Depends on the day."

"How inconstant. _I've_ got a papa." Another one of X's marbles rolled from the circle.

"Umm…"

"What does she look like?"

"Ah, well, purple.." _Clack_. Another marble rolled from the circle. "Umm…umm…long hair…" _Clack._ Another marble went into the girl's possession.

"Can't remember? How sad. I can describe my papa really well." She expertly shot another marble which kicked another of X's out of the circle. "And your purpose?"

"I..."

"Mine's to help papa." The girl looked down at the circle. "Oh look, you're out of marbles."

* * *

Pavane pour une infant – Ravel

Mutsuki was spoiled by her grandfather. Not rotten, but definitely treated much more extravagantly than her mother would ever treat her. Some of her schoolmates told her that they felt sorry for her, for not having a father around. She would toss her golden hair and say that she didn't need one; she had grandpa.

Her grandfather really understood children; he always knew what to do when she was in a poor mood and the best games to play. He could tell excellent stories as well.

Mutsuki got the feeling that her grandfather often put _her_ in his stories. After all, that fair-haired young, innocent princess with a liking for stuffed animals sounded awfully familiar.

She loved the exciting tales her grandpa wove and sat on his knee for hours on end to listen to them.

In fact, she had done so the night before her grandfather had died.

She stood in the cold rain the next day, clutching her umbrella, staring silently at the body of her grandpa, disbelieving what she saw. Then, Mutsuki could only cry.

With the rain which washed away her grandpa's warmth, so too did some of that unspoiled innocence her grandpa had so loved and found in all children.

Miss Investigator had found the murderer. The princess couldn't be innocent forever.

Mutsuki drove the ice-picks towards the murderer's neck, hoping the rain of that day would wash away his warmth as well.

* * *

A Window To the Past – John Williams

Setsuna saw ghosts of herself everywhere. Many of them confused her, for she had no memory of them.

Some seemed recent. The crowd of doctors huddling around her she saw in one corner was definitely recent.

Then there were others. On the ceiling, she saw herself talking and laughing with a single doctor whose back was always turned and whose name escaped her. Out the window, she could see herself perched on a tree branch grasping a cicada that had nearly fallen.

Then, even farther back. Those ran amok about the room. They were herself, smaller. Her showing off her newly caught bug. Her reading a story to a man. Her running around, playing with faceless children.

It dizzied her. And she wished they would stop.

* * *

Princess Mononoke (Instumental) – Joe Hisaishi

_There are spirits in the woods back here, Professor Harukawa._

_ Don't be ridiculous, spirits don't exist._

_ I'm not being ridiculous. You ought to come here alone sometime._

And so Harukawa did. It was his first time. He needed to, the frenzy back at the neurology center was setting off his nerves which were already stretched tight from lack of sleep.

He found it still. There was no breeze. There sounds of insects chirping nor of birds.

He had wanted silence, and he received it. But it was too quiet, too dead.

The spirits must've died, he decided.

* * *

Once In a Red Moon – Secret Garden

Yuka sat curled up in the work room of the late Eshiya Tougo. Everyone else in the house had gone to sleep long before. It was dark but for a single ray of moonlight which splayed itself upon the floor. It wasn't a silvery blue as it normally was, but tinted with red.

Yuka nearly laughed. The moon was coloring the exact spot where that old man had been murdered.

She couldn't understand why she felt unhappy over his death. It wasn't as if she had liked the old man. He was a creep who always stared after her with his bizarre eyes.

He wasn't even her real father.

Yet, she felt sad.

The room was quiet, but it did not scare her as silences in a room where people have died should. It calmed her instead. She decided she liked the room and wondered if she would've liked the old man if she had given him a chance.

* * *

Canvas – Imogen Heap

Yuki always had to look out for himself.

He and his brother were unwanted. Both of their parents had left them after Yuki was born, which led Yuki to wonder if it was really only he was truly unwanted. He envied his brother somewhat for not being the one to finally drive their parents.

The villagers didn't look out for them. The siblings lived in an icy area whose people were just as cold as the weather. It was as though all the layers of clothing were physical barriers keeping others away.

Thus, Yuki didn't expect anything when he was buried by snow. He struggled to get out, by himself. He tried to keep calm while not entertaining any hope of rescue. Who would try to save the unwanted kid anyways? Eventually, he gave up. He was too tired, and so cold...

Then, the sun hit his face. As cold as the sun was, it still warmed him. His brother was there, holding out his hand to him. And when Yuki finally got out, his brother embraced him. He felt warmth despite the snowed on jacket his brother wore.

Yuki always had to look out for himself and for his brother. His brother did the same. After all, no one was ever truly unwanted, even if he was only wanted by another unwanted.


End file.
